Kitten with Conjunctivitis that keeps coming and going?

[drunkmike]

Layla came from the Humane society pretty healthy but soon after arriving home she like my other rescues started with the runny eyes, sneezing, and congestion problems. Looking over her records she was treated with Gentak on 1 occasion while at the shelter and after about 20 days of treatment she no longer showed signs of it and was given a clean bill of health. They told us that it more then likely would rear its head again after getting her home because of the stress from moving into a new home. Well it did in fact show up again so we went for our first vet visit and he checked her eyes to make sure there was nothing physically wrong with with them like scratches or foreign debris and after that was cleared she was given tetracycline(sp?) 2 times daily until it was gone. During the course it seemed to come and go. There were days that her eyes would not be runny like nothing was ever wrong and other days when she had "squinty" eyes all day long. I usually give the ointment, wait a few hours and then give warm compresses to her eye and it generally worked great by getting the excess ointment off her fur and cleaning all the "goop" out of them. We are coming to the end of the treatment and the symptoms are still here so I am going to schedule another appt for this week hopefully. The vet seems to think that it might be allergy related but since she has had it since she was at the shelter and she is no longer on the same food she was there I am highly doubting it. We kept no toys or anything that she had from there so am I fairly safe in assuming this? On occasion she sounds congested again so I am starting to think she has probably got a URI that has never cleared up. Baxter went through the same problems when we got him minus the eyes. Clavamox was the fix for him and we never had another issue ever again! Do you think this is something I should ask my vet about for little Layla? I have been leaving her be and letting her be as stress free as possible, but as you can imagine holding her still long enough to give the eye ointment is very stressfull! Do you think this could have anything to do with all of it?

She is still eating, drinking, using the bathroom as usual and being a crazy kitten so I am not too worried about all of it because after doing alot of reading it seems like this is more then likely something that is going to come and go throughout the course of her life. Kinda one of those things that never goes away if I am reading correctly. Any ideas on what I need to be asking my vet when we go next? Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post!

[Tina B and crew]

Don't have advice, but wanted to say I hope Layla gets better soon Mike!

[Traci]

Mike, what form was the tetracycline prescribed? (oral, etc). Do you mean the vet prescribed terramycin ointment? (this contains a small amount of oxytetracycline)

If tetracycline was prescribed in oral form, it is generally a drug we like to avoid in young kittens.

The gentak used at the shelter probably wasn't the best choice - instead, they should have used a mild antibiotic opthalmic ointment like terramycin, easy on young kitten's eyes.

Also, there's no harm asking for clavamox, but it won't target viral infections, only bacterial. It can be a preventative measure if she has a URI in which to prevent secondary bacterial infections.

Don't aggravate Layla's eyes, only gently wipe them twice a day with a damped cotton ball, then apply the (whatever the vet could now prescribe - as vet directs).

It's possible she has herpesvirus, and your vet can do a simple swab test to determine for sure. If she has herpesvirus, this can be intermittent for life, usually coming on due to stress and changes in the environment, health etc.

Likewise, some kittens clear the virus (as long as proper treatment is given), and never have a problem again.

Ideally, maybe get a prompt recheck and ask the vet to investigate to make sure Layla's chest and lungs are ok, if she's congested, you do not want this turning into pneumonia.

Just to rule out: Do you have any new furniture (both human and kitty alike)? Did you recently spray or sprinkle cleaners or powders on your carpets or furniture? Do you use heavy cleaners on floors, countertops etc and don't rinse afterward? Just want to rule out environmental triggers.

What food are you feeding? (brand and type)

[drunkmike]

Thank you for the reply Traci!

The vet did prescribe terramycin I somehow got the 2 of them mixed up and posted it wrong so I apologize for that! He has me putting it into her eyes twice a day and although she hates having it on her, it does in fact seem to be working. I forgot to mention in my earlier post that the vet also gave her Chlorpheniramine Melate tablets to see if it made any difference. He said that this was used to treat airborne allergies.

We have no new furniture or anything in the house only a few basic kitty toys that we got new for her. Nothing with catnip or anything.. for the most part feather toys and a few of the Kong kickaroo's that she goes nuts for!

My house is all hardwood/ceramic floors on the ground level and the only thing I clean them with is windex multi-surface antibacterial (the yellow bottle). I just spray the floors down with it and use a swiffer pad to scrub them. Layla has never been around while I have been doing it though and everything is always left to dry before letting the fur babies back out. The whole second level as well as the stairs leading up to it are carpeted though and shortly after Baxter's passing I did in fact use a sprinkle on powder deodorizer on them during one of my cleaning fits. It was one of those things that I was just looking for something to do to keep my mind off of things and until you mentioned it I never even thought about it. I vacuum upstairs at a minimum of every other day and even though the vacuum has been emptied, it has not been cleaned out and I can still smell the stuff I used when I run it. I am going to have to take it all apart and wash all of the components after I get off work this evening so I can rule that out. I thoroughly have vacuumed all of the carpets since applying it but I think I am going to end up having to steam clean them or something to assure its all up.

She came from the Humane Society with Science Diet kitten formula but I have never been a fan of anything by SD so I am slowly transitioning her to Wellness Kitten formula and so far so good. She loves the taste and her poops have stayed pretty much the same.

As far as being congested I think this might be me being overly worried. She does in fact sneeze on occasion, but there has never been any discharge or anything from her nose (only her eyes). She has a very loud purr which Baxter never had and I think that is all I am hearing to be honest with you. The doctor checked her lungs and all during her last visit and said nothing sounded abnormal but I will definitely request a thorough recheck on that during our next visit.

Another thing I noticed about her eyes that may also just be me is that they seem to stick out further then other cats. Not in a bad way like something is wrong and I think it is just because she is so small and has these beautiful big eyes. The reason I ask this is because she is the VERY clumsy when she plays! She loves to hide under things like our coffee table and she CONSTANTLY bangs her head into it as she try's to shoot under. It never seems to phase her (or slow her down!) but it's something I figured I could bring up. Sorry for another long one, but hopefully I can get this figured out! Any other ideas aside from what I posted here? Thanks again Traci!

[drunkmike]

Another thing I was just thinking of is that since she did in fact have this problem at the Humane Society do you think it could be the Science Diet she was on? She is only 3 months old now, she lived at the shelter for about 2 months.. one of which she suffered from the eye problem. She did well on the meds she was given there but it has obviously came back. I hope this makes sense (it does in my head somehow! ). We are currently at about 80% Wellness and 20% Science Diet food and she is doing excellent on it so I am thinking about scrapping the SD all together and speeding up to 100% Wellness and see if this could be what is causing all of this! Let me know your thoughts on this please and thanks again!

[Traci]

If you've already thoroughly vaccumed any powder on the carpet, there probably isn't enough residue to worry about.

Would it be possible to take a pic of Layla's face, as close up as possible without bothering her? Do NOT use a flash or if using a digital camera, don't shine the "red" light in her eyes when you take the pic (again, no flash). Don't mistake conjunctivitis for large eyes. Conjunctivitis is swelling of the third eyelid and/or upper and lower eyelids, usually combined with redness.

Likewise, some very young kittens don't have a great deal of fur around their eyes, so it might give the appearance of bigger eyes. If you could post a pic, I can maybe help you determine if she has normal eye appearance for her age.

As for the clumsiness, depending on her energy spurts, most kittens are clumsy because they are too fast for their own good. The love to run and sprint, and contort their bodies into a million different positions. However, constantly bumping into the coffee table isn't good, maybe try to put a temporary "bumper" on it until she's growing and developing more. Or, encourage her to hide her toys under a table that is easier accessible to her without bumping her head. You could also get her a kitty cubby/cave she can hide her toys in, as well as play/sleep in (check petsmart for examples, look under kitty "beds" and "toys" and "furniture".

I don't have a problem with Science Diet. But, any cat can develop a food allergy to any food, at any time. Did you mention you're feeding Wellness to the vet?

As for transitioning food, my suggestion is as follows:

Day 1: 100% prior food.
Day 3-5: 75% prior food, plus 25% new food.
Day 7-10: 50% prior food, plus 50% new food.

Day 12-14: 75% new food, plus 25% prior food.
Day 14-15 onward: 100% new food.

In kittens, you want to do this within about 14 days so it gives the GI tract time to adjust, and to avoid diarrhea and/or constipation.

Aside from carpet powders etc, make sure the home is as dust-free as possible, and if you or GF smoke, smoke outside. Any dust, smoke, scents (like candles or aroma stuff), don't use it. (candles are too dangerous when you have cats anyway, and while humans might like insense or oil burning, cats generally don't - all of these can aggravate irritated eyes). Just to be sure, change your furnace filter and vacuum any drapes and bedding/furniture to help keep the dust down. Your vet might not have been speaking specifically to food allergies, but possibly environmental (home) allergies.

[drunkmike]

No no I don't think that her eyes are big from the conjunctivitis at all it is just more noticeable to me because her head is soo tiny and her eyes are so big! Along with the fact that she has probably about 1% of the fur that Baxter did The skin around one of her eyes is also a light pink and the other side is a brown color. The vet said that it was just the pigment of her skin and since both sides of her face are different colors (1 side is lighter, the other is darker) that it was normal. I will try to get her to hold still long enough to snap a close up picture of her face to show you what I mean.

We are on day 12 or 13 of being on Wellness so hopefully soon I will be able to tell if her "condition" goes away. The Vet did not mind when I mentioned Wellness to him either. He said that it is a high quality food and as long as there were no ill effects with her tummy then to stick with it.

As far as the house goes I am fairly OCD on dust and cleanliness in general so I can pretty much rule that out . Also no smoking but we do use plug in air fresheners so I will have to do away with them for a bit to see if it helps any.

[drunkmike]

Well I got off work early this evening but it is still sleepy time for Layla and she is not having me putting the camera in her face at all! I went upstairs to let her out of her room and she stuck her head out long enough to see what was going on and then turned around and crawled back under her blanket in her bed LOL! I did find a picture of the 2 different "shades" of the skin around her eyes from earlier in this month when I was trying to get pictures of her. I know its a horrible picture, but this is how her eyes normally look. You can see what I mean by both sides of her face being different shades like her eyes by the coloring under the eyes on her "cheeks". When the conjunctivitis started in HER right eye the skin around it was very VERY pink and looked painful and raw. When it happened in HER left eye, the brownish color never turned pink. It just got a bit swollen and "squinty". Both times that this has happened, it cleared up relatively fast (within 24 hours it was back to normal). It does look like she has some eye boogies or something on her face in the pic but after looking at some other pics from that set there is nothing there so it is just how it looks. I will try again in the morning to see if she will tolerate me getting in her face to take better pictures. Maybe I can catch her sunning in the window so I can get a really good one with lots of light. Thanks!

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75 ... M_0973.jpg

[Traci]

From that photo, her face/eyes appear normal. When was this pic taken?

Other than a re-evaluation from the vet, I'd suggest ruling out:

1) foreign body (especially if you notice her rubbing or scratching her eye(s), and watch her back nails in the event they are full of kitty litter)
I realize the vet did tests, and am assuming he did a dye test, but may not hurt to do it again.

2) ruling out herpesvirus

3) ruling out blocked tear duct and/or "crocodile tears" (which is a condition where the salivary glands and the tear ducts aren't working together, one or both eyes may weep, drain) - My Cinnamae has crocodile tears, she is a calico- we normally don't do anything for it except I keep her eyes clean if they are weeping, not very often.

4) checking the room you keep her in when you're gone, for any signs of irritants.

Try to get a new re-evaluation appointment as soon as possible and discuss all of the above with the vet.

[Cleo]

*screams* cuuuuuuuuuuute kitty!

To me the outside of *her* right eye looks pink and swollen underneath, comparing to the other which looks like she's wearing black eyeliner.